Play Dough Tips and Tricks

One of my favorite memories is my mother making play dough for us. Granted, it was a long time ago and my memories are spotty. But I do remember using play dough at the table in my house.

Other memories are the kids in my class using play dough. In the times of screens and apps, kids still enjoy using play dough - molding it, cutting it, smashing it.

Here are a few things we've learned about play dough:

1. Make it yourself.
Store-bought play dough is great. The scent of certain play dough smells like childhood. But we've found that our homemade play dough lasts longer and seems to be easier to use. Plus you can make it any color (or no color) and make as much as you want or need. Simple ingredients and simple preparation mean that new play dough can be only minutes away. Our favorite recipe is here.

2. Make it in the classroom.
We sometimes make play dough with kids in the classroom as a learning experience. Bring ingredients. Mix them together. Cook in an electric skillet. And you can have fresh play dough created by the young chefs and scientists in your classroom.

3. Place mats are your friends.
We have used play dough on tables and trays for years. Then, one day, we acquired some translucent place mats. (Sorry, I don't remember where.) Now we put them out on the table before using play dough. Mrs. Cindy always tapes the corners or sides to keep them from shifting during work time. Now clean-up is easier and every child has his own space for working.

4. Fancy tools are not needed.
We have some play dough and clay tools in our room--plastic pizza cutters, rolling pins, and shaping tools. But mostly we use repurposed and improvised tools. We use frosting spreaders, small spatulas, plastic utensils, and other simple kitchen gadgets with our play dough. Plastic lids make create "cookie cutters." Craft sticks work well to cut the dough and to carve in it. Sometimes we add plastic animals or people to make prints, shaped cookie cutters to cut shapes, and even rubber stamps to press in designs. Just about anything could become a play dough tool. And, of course, our fingers are the best tools!

5. We can create in different ways.
Slide a word or outline shape under your translucent place mats or in plastic sheet protectors. Kids can form play dough "snakes" and use those to create words or shapes on the lines. Add smooth stones or floral marbles for additional creative possibilities. Display pictures of animals or plants and encourage kids to create sculptures. I once formed a cube from a small ball of dough. Some kids were intrigued and experimented with 3-D shapes for a while. One group of girls years ago decided to explore physics by creating different sizes of balls and seeing how size impacted bouncing. (Which size would bounce higher?)

Play dough is a versatile learning tool. What tips and tricks have you discovered as you have used it?

A few of my play dough links--
Favorite Things: Play Dough
Homemade Play Dough
Alligator
Essence of Creativity
Play Dough Inspiration
Play Dough post on PreK and K Sharing

5 Ways to Use Rocks

Rocks make great resources in the classroom. Now when I say rocks, I mean all kinds of rocks and gems. We regularly use medium river rocks, small river rocks (like gravel), and floral gems/marbles. Whatever you use, you can use them in different ways. Here are five ways we've used them.

1. Count them.

Put rocks with other items and counting mats. My kids love to stack different items on the counting mats, including rocks.

Or count them as you play a counting board game.

2. Build with them.

I think that you can use just about anything in the blocks center. We add rocks (and sometimes other nature items) at times. My kids like to incorporate rocks in their buildings.

Or you can build with them with no blocks, too. Here we're building rivers.

3. Spell with them.

Print letters on paper or make letters with tape on the floor. Use rocks to outline the letters. You could even challenge kids to look at the letters and make them on a table or floor beside the printed letter instead of on top of it.

4. Investigate them.

Use rocks in your nature/science center. Include a scale, magnifying glasses, rulers, paper, and pencils. Kids can investigate the rocks. They can look at them, draw or write about them, weigh them. Hands-on science is great!

5. Use them with play dough.

Add small rocks and gems to your play dough center or activity. Kids can choose how to use them. (They may ignore them, too.) Our kids enjoyed exploring and creating by mixing the rocks in with the play dough. We created pizzas and mountains and all kinds of interesting things.

We've used rocks in all kinds of ways. These are just five of our favorites. How do you use rocks and gems to explore and learn?

Inspiration from the Blogosphere - 7/14/14

Here are some things that caught my attention this week. I can see all of these becoming a part of my classroom.

Salt Painting (Jojoebi Designs) - Glue design, sprinkle salt, paint with watercolors. I see lots of opportunities for exploration and creativity.

Forensic Science for Kids (Lovable Learning) - Put together a kit to explore forensic science techniques.

Fine Motor Math Game (Pre-K Pages) - Homemade cubes, beans, chenille stems - counting practice...and maybe finding patterns.

DIY Play Dough Toys (Kids Activities Blog) - It's not often that I want to immediately do what a blog post contains. This one made me want to go to the 24-hour Walmart at midnight to get outlet covers. We're definitely trying this.

Spin Art Rocks for Kids (Meri Cherry) - I've seen using a salad spinner to make paintings - and even paint t-shirts. But I haven't see the rock idea.

I liked each of the above ideas because they repurposed or reused items in new ways. I always enjoy that.

I've also been following the Challenging Behaviors book study, collecting those posts on my book study page. Some great stuff in those posts.

And I saw this post about challenging behaviors, too: Perspective - A Powerful Tool for Challenging Behaviors (Not Just Cute)

Anything that really inspired you this week?

Play Dough Inspiration from the Blogosphere

I've posted about play dough on PreK and K Sharing blog.

So I've been thinking a lot about play dough. I remember my mom making play dough. And years later, when I made my own play dough for the first time, those memories came flooding back.

Play dough is so versatile and can generate lots of learning opportunities. Here are some ideas from around the blogosphere related to play dough.

Dr. Jean, on her great blog, recently had a whole series on using play dough in the classroom--

• Play Dough 101
• Play Dough 102
• Play Dough 103

Here are some other recipes for play dough--

• Got Dough? (Dr. Jean)
• Best Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe (Imagination Tree)
• Ocean Slime (Buggy and Buddy)
• Dirt Dough (Growing a Jeweled Rose)

Here are some things to do with it--

• Fresh Herb Sculptures (Nurture Store)
• Make a Puzzle (This Reading Mama)
• Play Dough Center (Pre-K Pages)
• Fun Props for Play Dough (Teach Preschool)
• Name Search Play Dough Game (Homegrown Friends)
• 3 Essential Play Dough Tools You Might Already Have (Tinkerlab)

Inventiveness

I walked over to the table where boys were working. Using play dough, rolling pins, and a few letter cookie cutters. I saw some letters laying on the table, to one side.

"B, did you spell a word?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"What is the word?"

"Ooey."

I found his inventiveness really impressive. Especially the letter Os. We didn't have an O cookie cutter on the table. So B created his own. He used the letter P...and hung the tail off the side of his play dough  to create the O.

Kids always amaze me - their inventiveness and creativity seems to know no limits. A little play and a little independence lets them continue to invent and create.

And I hope that, by hanging out with them, I can capture some of that inventiveness for myself.

Essence of Creativity

The essence of creativity is to be able to disassemble and recombine elements in new ways. ~Adele Diamond

Today I'm spending the day reading, something that I love to do. I'm reading Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs by Ellen Galinsky. She includes the above quote in her book. 

Of course, this quote triggered my reflections about this past week...and what the kids did.

I put out cards with letters, rocks, and "gems" - the idea to line the letters with the rocks and gems.

I put out play dough for kids to do what kids do with play dough.

Since these two things were on tables near each other, I mentioned to Mrs. Cindy that some of the rocks and gems may migrate to the play dough table...and that would be fine. Well, here's what happened.

(birthday cakes)

(rock holder)

(pizza)

The kids were exercising great creativity - disassembling elements and recombining them. They were building on each other's ideas. They were creating, deconstructing, re-creating, breaking apart, putting together. 

This kind of activity will be important for the rest of their lives. Whatever job or task they are doing, these kids will need to see things in a different light, take apart what they know and recombine it into new ways, pull from disparate locations to create understanding or new ideas. 

Then I realized that the essence of creativity isn't the ability to do this - it's the freedom to do this. Kids (and teenagers and adults) must be allowed to disassemble and recombine elements. As a teacher, I must allow the kids to take the gems to the play dough...to use a doll with the blocks...to paint with a plastic hammer. Now, I know there are times these recombining ideas may not work (for a variety of reasons). But, as a teacher, I must be willing to say yes whenever I can.

Give the freedom...nurture the ability...encourage creativity. 

Some Christmas Links

This week we tried cutting snowflakes from coffee filters. This group of kids just liked the scissors and didn't really get into cutting snowflakes. They tried but just couldn't get into it. (I didn't really get photos of their efforts. It was a busy day.) Kids in last year's group loved it. And they really worked to get it just right (by their own standards). Check out the pictures of last year's snowflakes. I'd still recommend this as a fun activity for winter or Christmas.

Here are a few other favorite posts from around the blogosphere with some Christmas ideas—

Peppermint Play Dough (PreK + K Sharing): I love to make play dough, but I have not made any peppermint play dough. I think this would be a great sensory experience...or a great gift for kids.

Handmade Pine Tree Holiday Cards (Frugal Family Fun Blog): These are so simple and so cute. I think a batch of these would be fun for kids to make...or for an adult to make to send to kids.

Christmas Bow Magnetic Play (Teach Preschool): Everything that Deborah has been doing with her class this month has be fun and inspiring to me. I love the idea of magnetic play with bows. Don't you just have a stash of used bows that you didn't want to toss? Now you have a use for them!

Christmas Door (Getting Messy with Ms Jessi): I love the idea of creating a handprint tree without all the stress of putting hands in the "right place." And I can see this idea translate into lots of other applications, too - not just Christmas trees.

Paint Chip Ornaments (StrongStart): Another simple idea with few resources. Kids could make them as gifts to give...or these would make fun gifts or bag tags for kids.

There are a lot of great ideas all over this year. I just don't have time to do them all!

The Alligator

We love play dough; it's one of our favorite things. I put it out this week for the first time with my new group. They made snakes and cut them into pieces. They made balls. They flattened it out and cut it with the pizza cutters.

After a while, C was at the table alone. He gathered all the play dough together. He worked for a while and then brought me the result.

"The egg is cracking," he said. "It's a blue green egg. It's an alligator egg."

He showed his alligator egg around and went back to the table to make more lines on the sides.

He worked at the table for a while. I was busy in the blocks center and Mrs. Cindy was working at the puzzles table. So C worked alone with the play dough.

After a few minutes, he carried over his creation. "The egg hatched," he said. "Alligator!"

(It's so cool! The pictures really don't capture it in all its glory.)

This alligator can become the mascot of play-based learning. Kids need time and fun materials. They need to be able to explore their own ideas.

The results can be astounding.

Quick Tip: Homemade Play Dough

Play dough is one of our favorite things and homemade play dough is usually what we use. As a reminder, here's how to make it:

• In one bowl, mix 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, and 2 teaspoons cream of tartar.
• In other bowl, mix 1 tablespoon cooking oil and 1 cup water. (If you want colored play dough, add several drops of food color, too.)
• Combine dry mixture and wet mixture. Stir thoroughly.
• Pour mixture into stick-resistant pan. Stir constantly over low heat until dough forms and pulls away from pan (about 3 minutes).
• Knead dough until smooth. (Watch it! It will stay very warm.) Usually I knead on a piece of waxed paper or a plastic cutting board.
• Cool the dough and store in airtight container or bag.

Other ideas:

Make it with the kids. Take an electric skillet and ingredients to the classroom.

Create surprise play dough. Make white play dough. Form into small balls. Make a hole in each ball and add a few drops of food color; seal the hole. Give dough to kids to knead and watch the dough turn from white to a color.

Enjoy fall play dough. Use red and yellow food color to make orange dough. Add 2-3 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice to the dry ingredients to give your play dough a fall scent.

Favorite Things: Play Dough

A couple of weeks ago we used play dough for the first time this year. I was interested in seeing what this group of kids would do. We had rollers and a few other tools plus a few letter cookie cutters. 

We used the tools to cut lines and letters.

We cut lines with a pizza cutter and then smoothed them out.

We experimented with the tools to see what would happen.

(Notice the stick that migrated from another activity.)

Sticks can be used to make wavy lines even more wavy.

Pounding is another fun part of play dough.

One of the tools made holes. One friend made lots of holes.

We even spelled words.

We rolled and folded. We flattened and pushed. We molded and stacked. We had a great time with the play dough.

(And the place mats kept everything a little neater.)